dmsden:

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen
comes from @lxscrow963, who says, “Hey there! I’ve loved reading your posts and
noticed that you often mention holding a Session Zero where you go over
expectations between the DM and the players for a campaign. Could you elaborate
on some of the things you cover in those Session Zeros? I’m going to be DMing
my first campaign with almost all new, beginner players. The campaign will
start with a couple of childhood adventures (inspired by one of your other
posts), and I want to make sure everyone is on the same [page and that
expectations are clear. Any advice?”

Well, lxscrow963, first, thank you so much. Glad you are
enjoying the posts, and I’m super-flattered that you found my childhood adventures
idea inspiring. I will be happy to offer some thoughts.

First, have snacks. Snacks are a great ice-breaker to get
folks in a happy, mellow mood. (I mean, I’m sort of kidding, but sort of not. I
have a lot of ideas for gaming snacks. Hmmm…maybe that’ll be an article before
the end of this month.)

Even before your Session Zero, I would tell the players to
think about possible character ideas, but try not to get too attached to any of
them. You’ll want to talk to them about any restrictions you might intend for
character creation early. If you invite someone to a Session Zero for a
campaign where you don’t intend half-orcs to be allowed as a PC race, and they
start telling you about their plans to play a half-orc barbarian, let them know
right up front so that they’re not disappointed.

Start your Session Zero by thanking everyone for being
there. Give them a little hint of what you had in mind…kind of like pitching a
movie. Let them know the flavor you have in mind. “I intend to set this
campaign in the Forgotten Realms about 5 years after the events of the Tyranny
of Dragons campaign. It’ll initially be set in the Dalelands, but it’ll quickly
grow to a fast-paced, globe-trotting adventure, where you race against the
forces of evil to recover artifacts. Kind of like D&D meets Indiana Jones.”

You don’t have to spoil all the mystery here; just give them
an idea of where to start when creating characters. If you want to do Curse of
Strahd, but you don’t want them to realize this, you could tell them something
like, “The campaign is going to start in the Forgotten Realms, but I have a
major twist coming. Create your characters as you would for a standard
campaign, but be prepared for some nasty surprises down the road.”

Be very upfront about what you want to include or not
include for character options. If you don’t want to use Feats, or you don’t
intend to allow any playtest material, let the players know that. It’s worth
still maintaining an open mind, however. For my current campaign, I intended
all the players to be childhood friends, but one of my players asked me about the
possibility of playing a Shardmind Psion. We ultimately decided he would play a
different character in the childhood adventures who would die, and then the
Shardmind would absorb some of his memories, giving it a reason to travel with
the others (and for the others to accept it.)

It’s good to have a talk for what the players might want to
see, or what they’d prefer not to see. Do they love dungeons? Hate them? Do
they want heavy role-playing or something lighter? Do they want a grim, bleak
story, or something with plenty of time for light-hearted adventures? Are there
specific monsters they’ve always wanted to fight? Specific magic-items that
they’d love their characters to find? Does one have her father’s sword, and she
wants it to ultimately be a holy avenger? Take note now so that you can weave
that into your story later on.

If you don’t yet have a strong feel for the flavor of your
game, let the players’ wants speak to that. If someone suggests a campaign as
privateers in command of a ship, and everyone likes that idea, go for it, if it’ll
fit with your existing plans. Otherwise, you might say, “Well, I’ll try to make
that happen over the course of the game, but that isn’t what I want to focus
on.”

This is a great time to figure out what kinds of players you
have, especially if you’ve never gamed with them before. This goes a long way
towards knowing what their expectations are. If you have a group of people who
just want to roam dungeons, kill monsters, and loot treasure, then you know
what you campaign needs to center around. If you have a mix of people who want
role-playing, exploration, political intrigue, and monsters to kill, you’re
going to have a much more interesting and well-rounded campaign.

It’s also a great time to get a rough idea from players as
to what they might want to play. This is useful, not just for you, but for the
party as a whole. Generally speaking, the most successful parties have a good
mix of backgrounds, races, and classes, so they bring a wide variety of
abilities to the mix. That said, a party of all halflings, or all clerics, or
all entertainers is a perfectly interesting and viable party. If nothing else,
if gives an interesting story element for you to play off of. But, for example,
having everyone declare what they wanted to play in the Session Zero was very
useful to me in the game I play now. I knew we had a wizard, a rogue/artificer,
a barbarian, and a ranger. Since I love playing clerics and had an interesting
character concept, this made my choice easy, and I’ve been enjoying Malachi, my
tiefling cleric, ever since.

Don’t forget that you don’t have to only have one. If you
want to have one where everyone talks and then an actual character creation
session, or even more planning sessions, these are all perfectly viable
options. You could always have a series of sessions before the first game in
which you and your players jointly create the campaign world you’ll be playing
in. I could imagine that this would make for a very interesting and memorable
campaign!

I hope this advice is useful to you in playing and executing
a successful Session Zero, lxscrow963. Let me know if you have any other
questions, and watch for an article on D&D snacks towards the end of the
month for my “Freestyle” article!